NEW YORK (AP) -- Adam Wainwright used to be a creature of routineleading up to each start.

"Same sleeping shirt the night before," the St. Louis Cardinalsace said. "I couldn't wear blue jeans. I had to wear the colorred. Are you kidding me? It was ridiculous. If I didn't have anyof that, or worse, if something was thrown off, then instantly Iwas thinking, `Oh, man, I'm in trouble.' And that's ridiculous.It has nothing to do with getting anyone out. I figured that outsomewhere along the line."

With rain falling in the morning and clashing forecasts for theafternoon, Wainwright wasn't sure whether he'd pitch at allThursday.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny told him about 80 minutes beforestart time to get ready, so Wainwright shortened his pregameroutine and then pitched seven scoreless innings to become themajor leagues' first 10-game winner. In a classic pitchingmatchup, his 2-1 victory over the New York Mets sent Matt Harveyto his first loss of the season.

"We had two Cy Young candidates going at each other," said MattCarpenter, who tripled in the go-ahead run in the third andpreserved the lead with a sparkling stop at second base in theninth.

Some forecasts had predicted up to 3 inches of rain.

"Two days ago, they were talking about we were going to need tobuild an ark," Matheny said. "That's tough on the startingpitcher. As he's walking through here an hour-and-a-half beforethe game, he's completely out of his routine because he'shearing conflicting stories of what's going to happen withweather. But he got his mind together and got into anabbreviated version of his routine and went out and executed."

After expecting a rain delay, Wainwright did his preparation andwarmup - "kind of a ground routine; it's not gymnastics, it'sjust stretching" - in the clubhouse instead of on the field.

"My whole normal pregame routine was kind of thrown out thewindow," he said.

Wainwright (10-3) retired his first 11 batters before DavidWright's single and allowed four hits, struck out six and walkedtwo - including an intentional pass that caused the Mets topinch hit for Harvey in the seventh. He tied his career best bywinning his fifth straight start, dropped his ERA to 2.18 andgot his 1,000th strikeout when Wright was called out on afirst-inning curveball.

"It wasn't much fun to be an offensive player today," Wrightsaid.

Known best in New York for freezing Carlos Beltran with a calledthird strike to end Game 7 of the 2006 NL championship series,Wainwright had been 0-4 with an 8.46 ERA in four starts againstthe Mets since his only career win against them, in St. Louis onApril 18, 2010.

"I had everybody in the world tell me I had never beat the Metsat their stadium, so it was something I wanted to do,"Wainwright said.

Trevor Rosenthal pitched the eighth, and Edward Mujica allowed along home run to Marlon Byrd with one out in the ninth. JohnBuck doubled and took third as Kirk Nieuwenhuis grounded toCarpenter, who made a diving backhand stop as he fell and threwto first for the out.

"When it was hit, I thought he had a good chance of getting abase hit up the middle." Carpenter said.

Josh Satin fouled off two full-count pitches and swung over asplitter as Mujica remained perfect in 19 save chances.

Harvey (5-1) had given up one run and five hits in seven inningswith seven strikeouts and a walk, ending a 14-start unbeatenstreak dating to Sept. 12 but lowering his ERA to 2.04.

"He's as good as you're going to face in the big leagues,"Carpenter said. "He's got electric stuff. `'

Harvey had no-decisions in eight of his previous nine starts,and the Mets have scored just 18 runs while he's been in thegame during his last 10 outings, according to STATS.

"If I go seven zeros, we're still playing the ballgame." Harveysaid. "It's an incredible lineup. You really have to be lockedin one through nine."

St. Louis went ahead in the third when Pete Kozma hit anopposite-field single to right for the first hit of the game andCarpenter tripled past Byrd, who tried for a sprawling catch inright but allowed the ball to bounce past him.

New York's bullpen gave up a run in the eighth, when Carpenterand Beltran singled off Scott Rice, and Matt Holliday and AllenCraig singled against LaTroy Hawkins.

A day of dazzling defense included Craig's diving stop at firstbase in the eighth to rob Omar Quintanilla of a hit, two niftypickups by Daniel Descalso on slow rollers to third in theseventh and a pair of challenging catches by center fielder JohnJay. He ran to the warning track for Lucas Duda's two-out drivewith a runner on second in the fourth and nabbed a wind-blowndrive by Jordany Valdespin leading off the sixth.

"Our guys played a flawless game," Wainwright said.

Next month, Wainwright and Harvey could find themselves in thesame clubhouse at Citi Field - on the NL All-Star team.

"That's a long time from now," Wainwright said. "I've got to geta lot of different hitters out before I start worrying aboutAll-Star hitters."

NOTES: St. Louis took two of three in the series and improvedthe big leagues' best record to 43-23. ... Craig has 49 RBIs.... Kozma had three of the Cardinals' 10 hits.

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